Detail of publication

Citation

Schlegel, M. and Mertl, J.:
New control strategies for heating/cooling processes .
Process control 2006,
p. 1-12,
University of Pardubice,
Pardubice,
2006.

Abstract

This paper deals with temperature control of processes with electric heaters and fan or water coolers. The typical examples are plastic extrusion processes consisting of a large barrel divided into several constant temperature zones or almost any industrial furnaces. It is important from the control point of view that these processes belong to a class of asymmetrical nonlinear systems with variable dynamics varying according to whether the control mode is heating or cooling. This asymmetry is the reason why commonly used PID controllers often achieve a very limited performance. The paper presents new control strategies based on the sliding mode control and model based predictive control techniques and prototypes of involved controllers with autotuning capabilities.